The Rose Grew Here Announces A Night Of One Acts

The Rose Grew Here has announced an upcoming Night of One Acts, running November 9th through 11th. Each evening will feature the world premier of two new works, Fancy Maids and Skiá.

The award-winning play, Fancy Maids, will open up the event. Set in 1853, the play revolves around issues of race and gender, focusing on the treatment of Black Women in America.

"The conversation based around the MeToo Movement brought me back to one of the darkest chapters of American History, slavery," said playwright, Harold Hodge Jr. "At that time a Black Woman's body, according to the law, belonged to someone else. Women under the bonds of slavery had no say in the cruelties wreaked upon their bodies, sexual or otherwise."

However, Fancy Maids is not a narrative set in the Antebellum South. "We have seen the plantation story a thousand times," said Hodge, "I knew I did not want to tell that story. I did not want a play where we watch women suffer at the hands of men, there's enough of that going on in national headlines. I knew I wanted to explore the mindset and psyche of these women, but I wanted to give them the agency they would not have had."

Fancy Maids follows the story of four women who have escaped the horrors of slavery and are trying to make a new life for themselves in the North. When their new way of life is threatened, they find that they may have to take up violence themselves.

"I wouldn't call it a dark comedy," said actress Madeline Defreece, who stars as Idabelle, "But there is a lot of humor and there will be a lot of laughs. They say you have to laugh to keep from crying, and these women definitely do that. They have suffered so much before the start of the play, and now they are trying to make it through each day the best the can, with humor. "

Fancy Maids stars Madeline DeFreece, Paige Madkins, Chinara Stroman, Kayland Jordan, Dante De Leo, and Isaac Conner.

Developed through a collaborative and generative process, Skiá explores themes of knowledge, power, and escapism. Inspired by Plato's allegory of "the cave," Skiá takes ancient philosophy and displays them through a contemporary lens.

"The show explores Plato's idea that art can be used as a weapon instead of something good," said the show's creator and director, Adria Branson. "Several of the negative aspects of art that Plato described are magnified in today's age because we can consume art without leaving our home. We consume art and media 24 hours a day. I feel it makes Plato's philosophy even more relevant."

"We are looking deeper into who keeps the fire lit that the people in 'the cave' consciously follow," added assistant director, Michelle Chan. "We can see in our social and political world, people often follow a figure or ideal blindly."

A Night of One Acts will take place at Shetler Studios' The Bridge Theater. Performances are November 9th through 11th at 7:30pm, with a 2:00 pm matinee on November 11th. In total, the evening should run around 90 minutes. Tickets are $15, with a discounted student price of $10. In observance of Veterans Day, we are offering our country's veterans a discounted price of $10. Tickets can be bought at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3741005 .

 

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